Dear New Brunswick: I'm Leaving and I'm not Sure I'm Coming Back

I’ve almost graduated from my 5-year degree at UNB. During my time, I’ve been involved in the community and feel like I’ve become very well-versed in the many different political issues at the university-, municipal-, and provincial-levels. And I have drawn a conclusion from my experiences: I don’t want to live here anymore. My fiancee has applied to graduate schools in Ontario; we may be in Toronto, London, or Kingston. In the off chance she doesn’t get it, we’ll move to Vancouver so she can get credits to enter grad school at UBC. When people ask “where are you moving after you graduate?”, I used to explain all this. Now I simply answer “anywhere but New Brunswick.”

It’s been a difficult, slow realization. I love my family here, and we’re very close to Ashley’s Nova Scotia home as well. Being so far away will be difficult. However, as young people starting careers, New Brunswick is not the place for us.

Since this is a very comprehensive decision, I’m not going to try to explain in one post why I can no longer call this province home. Instead, I’ll be writing a series of posts detailing why I’m so fed up. There are problems with New Brunswick’s Post-Secondary Education system, Fredericton’s municipal government, the Provincial present government, and the culture that exists in New Brunswick. No single issue can be blamed for my decision to leave my home of twenty three years.

Here I am: a young person trained in the high-demand Information Technology field,a “Highly Qualified Person” by government nomenclature, who is leaving New Brunswick for greener pastures. I’m not the only one, but my reasons for leaving are pretty representative of people like me who want out of here.